


Justice

by KaenOkami



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Angst, Family, Family Angst, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Games, Gen, Gen Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26891002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaenOkami/pseuds/KaenOkami
Summary: Yu-hon teaches his son an important lesson in strategy.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Justice

**Author's Note:**

> Written for "The Hero's Journey" Akayona tarot zine.

Su-won was no stranger to people coming in and out of his home, for dealings with their general. But he normally saw everyone pleased by it, or at least content. He was puzzled when he watched a meeting of military officials let out with the attendees muttering and distressed, and anger smoldering on his father’s face. 

“Father? What happened?”

Yu-hon sighed. “I fought alongside those men for years. I thought they would always do what was best for Kouka. But it turns out they don’t know what that means at all.”

Su-won blinked. He didn’t quite get it, but he wanted to. “Tell me more?”

“Of course.” But Yu-hon was distracted, eying the flat wooden box in the corner of Su-won’s room. “Go get the board. Set us up a game.”

“Yes, Father!” 

It was an old strategy game he had only just fully mastered and was always eager to have a go at it now. Su-won still hadn’t managed to beat Yu-hon yet, he thought as he set up the infantry, cavalry, archers, and crowns, but he was determined to one day. Just one more step to impressing him on a real battlefield when he was grown.

Yu-hon allowed him to take the first move, and Su-won had to wait patiently through several turns before his father saw fit to continue his explanation. 

“You’ve seen the priests around the palace. What do you think of them?”

“I think they’re good men. Nice, at least. People look up to them, and seem to like them.”

“All true. But there was only one important thing you mentioned there. Know what it is?”

“...People like them?”

Yu-hon chuckled, moving two of his archers several spaces and a cavalry unit only one. “Goodness, kindness, likability...they don’t mean as much as you’d think they would, Su-won. It matters that people look up to them, yes, but that only means they might hold more power than they deserve. It might make them begin to think that they are more important than the throne. More important than Kouka Kingdom itself.”

“Aren’t they one and the same?” Having cleared a defensible path, Su-won wasted no time in moving his cavalry up as far as he could with his allotted moves. “That’s what you’ve always said.”

“Good boy. That’s exactly right. And it’s my observation that the priests could threaten the authority of the throne. It’s long been held that the first priest of Kouka was a man of unimaginable power, equal to King Hiryuu himself. Perhaps even greater. That may have been two thousand years ago, but I will not take the chance of history repeating. And the only way to ensure that is to exile the lot of them from Kuuto.”

Su-won considered this as he watched his father move his infantry in a puzzling pattern. “It’s better than killing them.”

“And _that’s_ a better reception to the idea than I got from my brothers-in-arms,” Yu-hon said wryly. “Hopefully my true brother will think as you do: as a king _should_ be thinking.”

“Uncle Il usually agrees with you,” Su-won said. He eagerly threw one of his cavalry to the right side of the board and took a good chunk of Yu-hon’s archers. “Father, I think I’m going to beat you this time!”

Yu-hon smirked. “You’re never assured of victory until the battle is over and all your enemies dead. And let me emphasize the importance of that first lesson: if you allow any hang-ups over whether you’re _good_ or _liked_ hold you back from making the best decision, you’ve already lost. If it is for Kouka, it is righteous.”

Su-won nodded. “I know.”

“In theory. But we are besieged by threats on all sides and from within, Su-won. My brother doesn’t always have the will to face them, and it’s still far too early to see how much little Yona takes after him. So it’s up to you and I to do what must be done.”

The words turned his stomach; himself against the world he could handle, but Su-won did not like the idea of himself against his own kingdom. “How do we do that, Father?”

“We do it two ways. By staying strong, no matter your choices or the consequences. Because every action has a consequence, and you must always be prepared.”

Su-won thought of what people said of Yu-hon at war: that he was ruthless and proud and unstoppable. Those words were said with as much fear as admiration. He didn’t yet know what choices his father had made, that people would hastily change the subject when they realized his young son was listening. Maybe he’d have better luck finding out down in Kuuto proper, since his father wasn’t given to boasting at length about his exploits.

Still. If Yu-hon could do it, then so could his son, no matter the danger or pain. The unknown did not frighten Su-won, it excited him.

“Right, Father. So what’s the second way?”

Yu-hon’s smirk just broadened, looking like a mountain lion about to take a bite of something. Before Su-won could figure out why, his father moved one cavalry unit, placed so inconspicuously among the strange assortment of infantry that Su-won hadn’t noticed it at all, and slid it directly in front of Su-won’s crown. Checkmate.

“Strategy, Su-won. Tactics. Power in all its forms is everything, but the knowledge of how to use it properly is the real key to victory.”

Su-won couldn’t help it: he stared open-mouthed at the board, frantically replaying the game in his head, trying to figure out where he’d gone wrong. “How did you do that?”

“I wasn’t afraid to lose some pieces on my way to winning the game. As a warrior, you’ll have to make the choice of who to sacrifice in victory’s name sooner or later. If you’re lucky, they’ll be enemies, or at least not terribly close to you.”

Su-won grimaced. He thought he’d understood. Clearly he had a lot more to learn. 

Quickly, Su-won began to rearrange the pieces, back to their starting positions. Yu-hon watched in bemusement. “What are you doing, boy?”

“We’re playing again,” Su-won said decisively. “I think I want to play again and again until I beat you. That’s the consequence of beating me, and you’ve got to deal with it.”

Yu-hon blinked, and then burst into the uproarious laughter that only his wife and son could elicit from him. “That’s my son! Think a little harder this time, and you just might have it...”

~0~

He’d been unlucky, it turned out. Part of him wondered whether his mother had been right, and he’d been born so, just like her. But Su-won did not believe in fate, chance, or accident of birth. Only in people, and their choices, and the devastation that they wrought. 

In the pale dawn light, he woke up in the bed of the king. The first thing he saw in the morning was the window overlooking Kuuto and the great expanses of land around it, only a fraction of the kingdom whose life he was now responsible for. 

Before even reaching full awareness, the first thing that touched him was the solitude, pressing around him like a heavy shroud. The second was the hunger and emptiness in his heart. Both felt like a sickness that would never leave him, but he knew the worst of it had hit him on that night, and that awful churning in his gut had gone by now. With time it would weaken, fade like a scar, and he would be able to ignore it, live with it.

He would never be the same. It wasn’t a transformation he had been able to feel the instant it happened, the way he had after witnessing his father’s murder. But he felt it now: until the day he died, there would be a chasm in his being that could be filled only with Hak and Yona’s love. That love had died before they had; their hatred might be the worst part.

_I was prepared, Father. Prepared for anything in a way that you never were. Would you be happy to know that your death taught me the most valuable lessons of my life? Do you find that balance has been restored to this place?_

No matter the answers, King Su-won regretted nothing. The pieces he had sacrificed were not mere pawns, instead they were two of the most valuable in his game. But it had been done all for Kouka, for the crown and the power it held to begin his kingdom’s ascension. If this pain was the price he had to pay...then so be it.


End file.
